


Monday Blues (Monday Bruise)

by Tillyalf427



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future Fish, Angst, Arguing, Assault, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Attempted Sexual Assault, Before you even think about that, Chef Nanase Haruka, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Minor Injuries, Police Officer Yamazaki Sousuke, Sousuke does not assault Haru
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:28:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22807102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tillyalf427/pseuds/Tillyalf427
Summary: Haru didn't like Mondays. He never had, not on the best of days, and certainly not today.What he had thought would be the same as any other boring Monday working in the small pastry shop he owned before returning home only to fall asleep watching some sea life documentary turned into something entirely different...
Relationships: Nanase Haruka/Yamazaki Sousuke
Kudos: 54





	Monday Blues (Monday Bruise)

**Author's Note:**

> This has been half-finished in my drafts for so long and I've finally gotten round to finishing it whoo!  
> I have so many unfinished works it's stressing me out so I thought I'd spend my week off college trying to sort through and finish everything, that's 3 down, 9 more to go! Anyway, enjoy this probably slightly OOC Souharu fic!  
> I don't have a single clue what that title is, don't even ask because I'm as lost as you are  
> Also I apologize if any words are missing a space between them, I broke my space bar ages ago and although I try and proofread, there's guaranteed to be mistakes still

Haru didn't like Mondays. He never had, not on the best of days, and certainly not today.

What he had thought would be the same as any other boring Monday working in the small pastry shop he owned before returning home only to fall asleep watching some sea life documentary turned into something entirely different. After finishing up an 8-hour shift, he finished up the last few things in the shop, ensuring the kitchen was cleaned down to perfection before changing into his normal clothes and leaving the building, locking up before setting off down the familiar paths he took every day.

A small, barely noticeable vibration disturbed his thoughts and he begrudgingly pulled out his phone (which he only carried on him to satisfy Makoto). Displayed on the screen was a text from his boyfriend and he unlocked the device, reading over the message quickly.

Just as he prepared to respond to the message, he felt strong hands grip his upper arm, trying to drag him towards a nearby alleyway. His struggling seemed to deter his assailants somewhat however, they still didn't give up completely, yanking on his arm and sending him tumbling to the floor, gravel crunching underneath him as his face hit the floor. As pain shot through his body, he quickly moved to get up again, only to find he was pinned to the ground by someone different straddling his stomach.

"This one could be fun, huh guys?"

Darting his eyes around, he saw three more guys surrounding him, each with a sick smirk plastered upon their faces and he found that he recognised two of them from high school. 

"Nanase Haruka? Never thought I'd see you again," One of the voices practically purred "You know I never liked you. You were always so smug, it infuriated me,"

Haru tried his best to wrestle the person off the top of him, not wanting to use violence but feeling the need to rising as they began trying to remove his hoodie, their hands feeling like fire on his skin. 

"Stop struggling so much," Another one of the people joined in, their voice filled with anger, raising their fist only to slam it down hard into the centre of his ribcage.

He curled in on himself at the impact, wheezing as the breath was effectively knocked out of him, desperately trying to regain his composure as his hoodie was sliced open with a small pocket knife, leaving him shivering on the floor, surrounded by sickening grins looming over him as his limbs were restrained by each of his attackers.  
Taking a moment to try and regain his breath, he felt renewed energy coursing through his veins, pumping adrenaline through his system to give him the strength to fight what was happening. Hands had shoved his shirt up to his neck and were now roaming around his chest, scratching hard with blunt nails, leaving red welts across his skin where a quickly darkening bruise was forming. He stayed deathly still for another moment as a hand slipped into his pants, his breathing short and uneven as he tried to stay calm with the hope of catching his attackers off guard.  
Just when they began losing focus, releasing his limbs ever so slightly, he took his chance, shooting up from the ground and knocking whoever was on top of him backwards. The two who had been restraining his arms tried to regain their grip on him however, he had just barely managed to escape their clutches as he scrambled away towards the end of the alleyway, ignoring the sharp jolts of pain coming from his ribs as he panted from exertion. The one he had previously knocked back off him had somehow managed to grasp his ankle, pulling him down onto the hard gravel beneath him with a sickening crunch and without thinking about possible consequences, the raven-haired male began kicking his legs, managing to hit something which caused the grip to release and allow him to struggle to his feet again and rush out of the alleyway, practically sprinting without even looking back. His pace didn't slow for a single second, it was as if he was numb to everything, the pain from his badly bruised chest feeling like a mere tickle as he made his escape, running all the way home with no regards to other members of the public in his panicked state. As he reached the front door to his house, he felt his blood run cold with fear as he wondered whether he had lost his keys throughout the ordeal, hurriedly patting his pockets for the small keyring which had his house key attached. It was a miracle that he managed to find it in some small forgotten pocket, jamming the metal into the keyhole and practically yanking the door open only to slam it closed behind him, locking it and double-checking it before collapsing to the floor once more, allowing the pain, both physical and mental to wash over him like a tidal wave.

The vibrating of his phone violently snapped him back to reality and he pulled out the somehow still working device, cringing at the shattered screen as he tried to decipher what the notification was through the cracked glass.  
It was another text from Sousuke, simply saying his name with a question mark after his last message gained no reply.   
Unfortunately for him, this one wouldn't get a reply either.  
In a sudden burst of anger and panic, Haru flung the device across the hallway, hearing it crack as it made contact with the wall before dropping loudly to the floor as he let a weak, almost silent sob escaped him.  
His entire body felt pained, a combination of bruises from falling and bruises inflicted by others coming together to make his every limb ache and twinge when moved and so, he simply leaned back against the door, trying his best to breath shallowly to not aggravate the bruises on his ribs. It was hard to not gasp desperately for breath at the feeling of not being able to breathe normally however, he forced himself to continue his shallow breaths, feeling adrenaline rushing through his veins urging him to just _move_. Anywhere, anything.   
He just needed to do something.  
Pushing himself up from the floor with some difficulty, he walked straight past his now shattered phone, grabbing a sketchpad and some pencils before settling down in the living room, safely behind the glass doors leading outside. He didn't think, simply let his mind wander and his hand draw whatever, barely even seeing the lines being put down on the page. He tried to forget anything he felt, letting emptiness settle inside of him whilst he drew in the slowly fading light. When it eventually became too dark to see the paper before him, the raven-haired male placed the pad and pencil on the table before flopping down on his back, staring blankly into the now darkened room.

It wasn't too long until the sound of a key in the lock startled him and he found himself shooting up from where he had been led, mentally reminding himself that it would be Sousuke and that he had no reason to be on edge, however, he couldn't help it. Every inch of his body was tense as his eyes darted around the room, fixing themselves on the doorway as he heard Sousuke struggling with his shoes. Taking in a shaky breath, he felt his bruised body protest at the strain however, he knew if he didn't breath, Sousuke would immediately spot something was wrong. Although, now that he thought about it, maybe the pitch-black room would give it away easily.

Trying not to think too much about it, he tried to relax slightly, also recognizing how tense his posture was and knowing that Sousuke knew him well enough to notice. With a shake of his head, he brushed off those thoughts, turning slightly as he heard Sousuke's footsteps approaching the door. The dark-haired male entered the room, his face full of confusion as he observed the dark room, spotting Haru's silhouette sat on the floor. Flicking the light on, the room was illuminated and Sousuke noticed Haru's odd demeanour immediately, his face turning to one of confusion. He was still clad in his police uniform, having come straight from work however, Haru barely even glanced at him, staring blankly at the wall opposite.

"Haru? Are you alright?" Sousuke asked, slowly approaching his mostly completely unresponsive boyfriend. The only reply he received was a shallow nod, making his frown deepen in concern and so he continued closer, spotting the sketchbook lying discarded on the table, briefly glancing over the drawings consisting mainly of vague faces scribbled haphazardly across the page.

"Are you sure?" Sousuke added, clearly sensing something was off with his boyfriend. "You didn't answer my messages before," 

"Sorry," Haru's reply was short and his tone sharp as he added "I dropped my phone before you messaged,"

As much as Haru had longed for the comfort of his boyfriend earlier, now that he was here, he was asking questions, too many questions, questions that Haru couldn't answer. That he didn't want to answer.

He didn't want to have to remember at all, let alone explain what had happened to Sousuke although he knew he should...

"You dropped your phone? Oh god..." Sousuke let a small smile grace his lips "You had me worried," 

"Sorry," Haru repeated, still not looking at his boyfriend.

The spark of worry which had died down within Sousuke lit up once more. It wasn't like Haru to apologise this much. And although he was quiet, he was never usually this quiet.

"Did something happen?" 

Freezing like a deer in the headlights, Haru shook his head quickly, too quickly for Sousuke's liking, and spoke through gritted teeth.

"Nothing happened. I'm going to go for a bath," 

Sousuke gave a confused nod, watching Haru leave the room before straightening up to follow after him, his concern growing with every passing second.

He glanced once more at the sketchbook lying on the table before flicking off the living room light and following Haru out to the hallway towards the stairs only, his attention turned to something unusual lying on the floor near the wall.

The dark-haired male glanced to see that Haru was already up the stairs, most likely grabbing a towel and quickly walked to the end of the hallway to see Haru's phone lying on the ground, shattered glass surrounding the device. Surely this couldn't all be from him dropping it?

With this reasoning, Sousuke glanced around, noticing a rather large scuff mark on the wall above the phone, almost as if it had been thrown.

_But why would Haru throw his phone at the wall?_

Besides that, Haru would have gotten home hours after he had texted the first time, if he only broke his phone once he was home then why did he not reply?

That was, if Haru had purposely broken his phone.

This whole situation made Sousuke's head spin and he quickly headed for the stairs again, stopping in the doorway and watching Haru grab a towel as he leaned against the doorframe, simply observing his boyfriend.

It wasn't long before Haru moved to leave the room, being stopped by Sousuke leaning in the doorway. He waited a moment to see whether Sousuke would move and when he didn't, Haru spoke quietly, keeping his cool...for now at least

"Excuse me,"

When Sousuke didn't move an inch, Haru raised his gaze, sending a challenging look to the taller male who simply mirrored the expression.

"Sousuke," Haru spoke seriously which Sousuke mirrored

"Haru," The glare he received told him that Haru wasn't impressed, however, he was going to find out what was wrong if it was the last thing he did "You're clearly not okay, what happened?"

"Nothing happened," Haru spoke through gritted teeth, waiting another moment with his glare fixed on Sousuke before pushing past the taller male, finally losing his patience.

Having seen this coming already, Sousuke reached out to grab Haru's wrist, pulling the shorter male back to look at him once more and earning a wince of pain in response which Haru tried to mask as annoyance, albeit badly. Sousuke immediately saw through the mask Haru tried to hide behind, his voice now demanding

"Haru, what happened?" The raven-haired male simply bit his tongue and glared at the taller male.

"I don't want to talk about it okay," 

Sousuke let out a sigh of frustration, pulling Haru towards him into a tight hug, releasing almost immediately at Haru's sharp inhale of pain.

"Where are you hurt?" Sousuke's voice was much calmer than before, concerned more for his boyfriend's wellbeing than gaining answers for the time being.

" _I'm fine_. Just hit my side on a counter at work,"

"Show me," Sousuke refused to take no for an answer, his hand reaching for the hem of Haru's shirt, feeling Haru grip his hand in a death grip.

"Please...don't..." 

Sousuke simply sighed, not wanting to go against his boyfriend's wishes but finding his concern greatly outweighing anything else at the current moment. As he lifted the fabric up, he didn't see any bruises where he expected them to be, instead, his eyes were drawn to the large blackening bruise towards the bottom of Haru's ribs. He reached out to run his hand across the bruise, pulling bak upon seeing Haru's barely disguised flinch.

"Haru..." Sousuke found himself lost for words, his eyes glued to the bruised patch of skin even as Haru weakly hit his hand away, letting his shirt fall back to cover it. "This didn't happen at work. Haru, what happened? Who did this?" 

Haru stared blankly at his boyfriend for a moment before a bitter grin broke through his normally deadpan expression.

"You think you're the only one who had a problem with me Yamazaki?" The raven-haired male let out a laugh which sounded like a mix between a laugh, a sob and a hiccup, pushing Sousuke away with a hand on his chest. "Leave it,"

With that, Haru turned and entered the bathroom, locking the door behind him before he could consider changing his mind. It was only once he was alone that he realised how much he was shaking, leaning against the door trying to take deep breaths as he sat down, still leaning heavily against the door.

There was banging on the door, startling Haru out of the fetal position he had curled into as Sousuke's voice came loudly through the door

"Haru? Haru, are you alright? I'm sorry...I shouldn't have pushed it,"

Guilt began welling up inside him at the tone of Sousuke's voice, wheezing for breath as his thoughts only served to increase his distress.

He leaned against the wall as he stood up shakily, moving towards the sink and gripping the sides of it until his knuckles went white. When he felt more steady on his feet, he leaned down, cupping his hands to splash water onto his face, scrubbing furiously at his skin as the water dripped down onto his t-shirt, leaving darker wet spots here and there

"I'm sorry..." Haru mumbled, staring blankly at his reflection staring back at him in the mirror. He barely even recognised himself at this point, no wonder Sousuke had been concerned. His skin was even paler than usual with an unusual grey tone to it, his eyes were red and bloodshot as if he hadn't slept for days, even his posture was wrong, hunched over to try and avoid injuring his ribs more.

Speaking of which, he hadn't properly looked at the injury since he had returned and so, he echoed Sousuke'sactions from before, pulling up his shirt and tracing a finger over the bruise, wincing at how cold his hands were and at how the pressure made his whole chest ache.

The bruising was worse towards the right side of his chest, with the darkest part of the bruise running right across the bone and he let his fingers follow it across. A shaky breath sent pain rushing through his body and he doubled over slightly, taking small, shallow breaths to avoid the same pain again before finally straightening up once more shakily making his way to the bath where he quickly turned the water on, sinking into the warmth as soon as possible, hoping it may help to soothe both his physical injuries and the rushing anxiety flowing through his bloodstream.

The bath didn't really help to remove the pain, however, it did help him to relax slightly and he quickly found himself dozing off in the warm room, only to jerk awake whenever he slumped down, sending a jerking pain through his body. 

He awoke again, shivering in the now cold water, the room still dimly lit, now lacking the steam which previously emitted from the hot water. Another shiver wracked through him and he decided it would be a good time to get out and go to bed with the hope of getting some sleep. Climbing out of the bath shivering, he quickly drained the water and moved to wrap a towel around himself, drying the water off his skin before exiting the bathroom, padding across the hallway to his bedroom, not bothering to turn the light on.

Confusion filled him as he entered the room, seeing light flooding from inside where he saw Sousuke sat on the bed against the wall, now changed out of his uniform into more comfortable clothes. When he spotted Haru, he moved to stand up, being stopped by Haru who pushed him to sit down again, taking a seat beside him and pulling his knees up to his chest, resting his head on top of his knees.

He could feel Sousuke's gaze scanning over him, presumably looking for any other injuries however, Haru interrupted his train of thought by speaking quietly.

"I'm sorry..." Sousuke moved to place a reassuring hand on Haru's shoulder but was shrugged off as Haru carried on "I know you were just worried...I just...Don't know if I can talk about it just yet..."

"Haru..." Sousuke's gaze didn't leave his boyfriend for a second and he nodded in understanding "Take all the time you need. I shouldn't have pushed you,"

Haru shook his head in disagreement however, he left the mini argument where it was, lifting his head slightly to watch Sousuke as the taller male moved to grab a plastic carrier bag he had set down by Haru's desk.

"You don't need to tell me what happened but...That's a pretty nasty bruise, does it hurt a lot?" Sousuke asked, approaching Haru and placing the bag down next to the bed before collecting some clothes for Haru to change into.

The raven-haired male grimaced slightly at the question, not quite sure whether to admit to Sousuke how bad it was but eventually giving in, seeing it as the start of explaining what happened.

"A bit...Mainly when I breathe too deeply,"

Sousuke nodded in response, urging Haru to get up and helping him into the clothes he'd grabbed before grabbing some items from the bag he'd brought. He passed Haru a bottle of water before grabbing some tablets out of the bag.

"They should help with the pain," The taller male explained before grabbing a tube from the bag too "Can I see?" 

Haru quickly swallowed the tablets and nodded in response to Sousuke's question, laying down when urged to by Sousuke who pushed the fabric of Haru's shirt up, squirting some of the contents of the tube onto his hands, moving to gently massage the gel-like substance into the blackened bruise.

Haru leaned into Sousuke's touch, the taller males hands warm against his cold skin although the slight pressure made his chest ache pitifully. The gel began soaking in as Sousuke explained that it should help take down the swelling and the bruising before he stood up from where he sat next to Haru with a quick explanation.

"I'm going to go grab some ice, stay there, I'll be back soon,"

The raven-haired male nodded, flopping back against the pillows as he listened to Sousuke's retreating footsteps. It wasn't long before his boyfriend returned, holding an icepack and approaching the bed once more, sitting beside Haru once more and moving to place the ice on the bruise with a quick warning

"It'll be cold, obviously,"

Haru nodded however, it didn't stop the hiss that escaped him as the cold came into contact with his chest.

Sousuke offered a small smile, shuffling backwards to wrap an arm around Haru and allowing the raven-haired male to rest his head on his chest.

They lay there quietly for a while until Haru's voice broke the silence, quiet and cautious.

"I...got attacked...on my way home..." Sousuke stiffened up slightly upon hearing Haru's quiet explanation. He couldn't see his boyfriend's facial expression however, he could sense the uncertainty coming off Haru in waves, reaching up to run a hand through Haru's hair in comfort. "Some people from high school...That's why I didn't reply...I fell on my phone so it was already cracked then...when I got back I got annoyed...so I threw it...I probably shouldn't have..."

"Haru.."

"I don't want you to pity me..." Haru spoke more confidently "The last thing I want is pity,"

"I know," Sousuke continued to mess with Haru's hair "I won't pity you. As long as you're alright?"

A nod came from Haru and he added

"I'm still a bit shaken up...but I'm better...I think..they were planning to..." The raven-haired male shook his head to remove the thought from his head "It doesn't matter... Thank you...for this..." Haru gestured towards the ice pack resting on his bruised ribs.

"Figured I'd use my knowledge of treating injuries," Sousuke joked lightly before adding "Just don't go doing the same thing again and wondering why it's not healing,"

Haru simply hummed in response, letting his eyes slip closed asking quietly

"What time is it?"

A quick glance at his phone told Sousuke it was almost one in the morning which he repeated to Haru who sighed lightly in response.

"You could always close tomorrow, I'm sure people would understand if you explain it's extreme circumstances," Sousuke suggested, gaining another hum.

"Maybe,"

"Either way, you should get some sleep," Sousuke suggested, seeing how Haru forced his eyes open every now and then to keep himself awake. 

"Yeah, so should you. You shouldn't have stayed up waiting for me, you're working tomorrow right?" Haru's eyes were now looking up at him with slight concern

"I'm on patrol with Rin, he'll understand if I'm a bit late," Sousuke grinned before adding "Now sleep,"

With Haru's agreement, they both found sleep overtaking them, trying to forget what had happened and gain a good nights-well _mornings_ sleep.

"Thank you, again..."Haru mumbled just as Sousuke was about to slip into unconsciousness, forcing a smile to slip onto his face as he fell asleep, arms wrapped protectively around Haru who although he often grumbled about the lack of space secretly loved it.

Haru didn't like Mondays.

Especially not this specific one.

But at least Sousuke had managed to make it somewhat bearable.


End file.
